After refusing direct contact with China...

TALKING AGAIN.

May 14, 1986

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — TALKING AGAIN. After refusing direct contact with China for 37 years, officials from Taiwan agreed Tuesday to meet Chinese representatives to negotiate the return of a cargo plane whose pilot defected to China. Taiwan's China Airlines said in a statement it was willing to meet in the British colony of Hong Kong with officials of China's airline, the Civil Aviation Administration of China. In Peking, an official with the Chinese carrier who refused to give his name, said he could not comment because he had not received the China Airlines statement. Both sides said the negotiations on the China Airlines Boeing 747 would not have political significance. The cargo plane, destined for Hong Kong from Bangkok, Thailand, landed in Canton on May 3. Its pilot, Wang Hsi Chueh, 56, announced he wanted to defect to be reunited with his family.